A husband determined to answer his wife's complaint that word searches are "too easy" has gone viral for creating an "abomination" of a puzzle, and he told Newsweek exactly how he did it.
Eric Loux, 35, is at home in Tennessee, while his wife Darcy, 30, is in the Philippines, and he says: "Because of the distance, we're always looking for things to do together while we're waiting to see each other in person again the next time".
Darcy spends a long time commuting to her work in software development, and regularly buys word search puzzle books, but finishes them too quickly, often completing a 40-word puzzle in under 10 minutes.
So, when Loux offered to make her one, she took him up on the offer, he told Newsweek, and he didn't hold back.
In a viral post to Reddit's r/puzzles sub on his account u/Xoul, which was upvoted 107,000 times, he wrote: "My wife says word searches are too easy, so I made her this abomination."
It shows a search with just 16 words, including "retiree," "attire," "arrear" and "airier," all using the same letters. So the board is filled with Is, Es, As, Rs and Ts, so much so that looking at it almost makes you dizzy.
And to add another layer of sadism, he confirmed the words can be found in diagonal, horizontal and vertical lines, as well as being written backward.
Reddit users were impressed to say the least, with one calling it "pure chaos" and another joking: "Some people just want to watch the world burn".
"Diabolical genius at work," another wrote, while one said: "You monster! I love it!"
Loux told Newsweek he was shocked by the response on Reddit, and laughed at some of the comments, particularly those who compared him to Satan "often in an approving way."
He created the puzzle using a letter frequency chart and Scrabble word finger to come up with 16 words "that all shared the same six letters," before putting it together in an Excel grid.
"Once I had the real words in, I added some fakeouts, where I'd include most of the word and then change the very last letter so it wouldn't match," he said, adding it took around two hours to make.
And while his wife described feeling "challenged and annoyed and then challenged again," and admitted it was fun but "makes your brain hurt," she managed to complete it in just 55 minutes.
"Which is about twenty times longer than I can even look at it without feeling sick," Loux joked.
Word games like crosswords and word searches have proven benefits for brain health, according to Cleveland Clinic neuropsychologist Jessica Caldwell, PhD.
She said in a publication for the clinic that challenging yourself and learning can help keep your memory and thinking sharp, and as you exercise your brain, you're growing new neural pathways.
Excel guru and Master's degree student Loux has made a second word search for Darcy made out of the letters of her name, and hopes to make her a book of these types of puzzles.
Loux made the "abomination" puzzle last year, and never thought more of it than simply a way to "torture my loving wife". But when he randomly discovered the r/puzzles sub he decided to share it, and the massive reaction has led him to consider publishing a book made of the impossible games.
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